


Lukas in London

by fennishjournal (Shimi)



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Family, Gen, Homesickness, Poldi being unexpectedly deep, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-30
Updated: 2014-10-30
Packaged: 2018-02-23 06:46:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2538137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shimi/pseuds/fennishjournal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>He dreams of the spires of his cathedral, the ancient grey stonework of the Dom like dark lace against a blue summer sky. He dreams of the river Rhine in all its murky glory, how it snakes through the city and how bridges will disappear into fog and invisibility on cold autumn days. </i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>Lukas isn't homesick. But sometimes he dreams.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lukas in London

**Author's Note:**

> For the footy ficathon [prompt](http://thesilverwitch.livejournal.com/31896.html?thread=557464#t557464):
> 
> _the loneliest people are the kindest, the saddest people smile the brightest.  
>  okay, so i want a lukas podolski-centric fic inspired by the above quote. it can have pairings but that's not really a necessity, just give me a fic about poldi please because he deserves more love. :(_

Lukas really likes babysitting for Per and Ulle.

 

In part it's because he feels the need to repay them for all the support and plain friendship they've shown him since he moved here. They've both been unfailingly kind about including him in dinner parties with the neighbours, taking him furniture shopping and inviting him over for breakfast with the family. Whenever he and Per get back from an away game, Ulle usually picks both of them up from the airport and Per has been fairly awesome about dragging Lukas to pubs despite the fact that Lukas still doesn't drink.

 

Mostly, though, it's because he genuinely enjoys hanging out with Paul. The little guy is a sweet kid and they have a lot of fun together racing toy cars across the living room and playing hide-and-seek all over the house. The delighted shrieking whenever he “finds” Paul in his usual spot behind the sofa and takes the opportunity to tickle him reminds him so much of Louis that it hurts.

 

Both he and Monika had been in agreement that moving Louis out of school and into a foreign country was out of the question. Louis loves his school and he loves his neighbourhood and his grandparents and cousins and – no, it simply wouldn't have been fair.

 

Most of the time, Lukas is at peace with his decision but sometimes, when he sits in the afternoon quiet of his rich London neighbourhood with another man's son sleeping in his lap, that heavy weight of innocence and complete trust makes him ache with longing.

 

Most of the time, Lukas is rooted firmly in the here and now but on days like that Paul's complete relaxation will pull him down into slumber, too, and he dreams. He dreams of another small hand in his, and of his son's laughter as Louis drags him down to the river bank to feed the seagulls. He dreams of the spires of his cathedral, the ancient grey stonework of the Dom like dark lace against a blue summer sky. He dreams of the river Rhine in all its murky glory, how it snakes through the city and how bridges will disappear into fog and invisibility on cold autumn days.

 

Lukas isn't homesick. But sometimes he dreams.

 

 

 

When he announced his transfer, his friends joked that Lukas is a creature of habit and that he looked long and hard for another club that played in red and white, for another city with a river in its center and another giant cathedral. He used to find it funny but the joke has grown a bit stale for him.

 

London is nothing at all like Cologne.

 

London is....well. It is BIG, for one. He had assumed that after Cologne and Munich he was used to big cities but he is slowly realising that he knows NOTHING about big cities whatsoever. 14 million people. He still can't quite believe that number.

 

He likes it here but it takes him ages to get a feel for the city, to arrive at that intuitive place from which he knew Cologne and even Munich. He isn't quite there, yet, with London, which seems enormous and sprawling that his mind can't quite grasp it.

 

 

 

That doesn't keep him from exploring bits and pieces of it whenever he can, though.

 

On the rare days he has completely to himself, he likes walking along the Thames and watching the ships go past, because to him a river has always been what the heart of a city is about.

 

London is full of stunning juxtapositions, full of tiny medieval houses next to sky-scrapers and old working-class neighbourhoods cheek-by-jowl with the new glass towers of international finance. Lukas enjoys drifting through the grab-bag mix of architecture from different centuries and finding the occasional lovely little spot in all that noise and pollution. Like the Starbuck's in St Katherine's Dock which is a tiny, round tower that's all windows and where he takes Louis just before Christmas so they can sit there drinking hot chocolate together as the snowflakes fall outside.

 

He likes walking through the older neighbourhoods at Canary Wharf, which make no secret of the fact that this used to be a working harbour not too long ago, and then back again to the towering glass edifices of the new part. He enjoys the fact that London is so colourful and diverse, that no matter what mad hobby you have, no matter where you're from or what your beliefs are, you will find your people here.

 

In that sense it is much like Cologne but bigger, oh God, so much bigger.

 

He sometimes feels a bit lost among the masses, a bit out of place between all these stately buildings.

 

 

 

The thing is, Lukas has always loved travel. He is grateful for any international trip he gets to take, for all the places he would never have gotten to see if he hadn't been lucky enough to be a crack football player. Whenever he can, he will steal away from the team and explore whatever place they're staying in on his own. He is good at talking with his hands and feet and he always finds that a genuine smile goes a long way, so he never has any difficulty finding friends.

 

No, Lukas really does love to travel.

 

The thing is, though: travel is supposed to end with you going home. These days, journeys end with him unlocking his London front door and, while he has come to love London, it will never be home for him.

 

He isn't sad, exactly. He isn't really homesick. And he certainly isn't lonely. His team mates are great and he knows how to connect to people by showing genuine interest and offering a helping hand wherever it's needed. Per and Ulle have become good friends and he already knows the regulars who hang out in his neighbourhood pub. He has a lovely wife and a truly amazing son, who is the light of his life, and he gets to see both of them fairly often.

 

But there are days when he walks down to the Thames and picks up the first three stones his shoe catches on, the way his grandfather taught him to, and stands on a bridge. He takes his time just standing there for a while, the stones clenched in his right hand, and then he closes his eyes and lets them drop into the current one by one thinking, “Take me back, I will come back, I will come home.”

 


End file.
